Meet Pete Holmes, TBS's New Late-Night Host

Another comedian is joining the late-night game. Pete Holmes has been tapped by Conan O'Brien to launch a half-hour show this fall that will air at midnight on TBS, right after Conan. "I'm over the moon," Holmes, 33, tells TV Guide Magazine in his first interview since getting the gig. "I have pretty much been eating exclusively ice cream since getting the news."

How did it happen? Holmes, who's been on the stand-up circuit for more than a decade, made his first appearance on Conan two years ago and immediately caught the eye of O'Brien and executive producer Jeff Ross (who helps runs O'Brien's production company, Conaco, with David Kissinger). Ross says Conaco had been kicking around ideas for a show to lead out of Conan. "The name that kept coming back to us was Pete Holmes," he says. "We got to know him a little bit, and he's this funny, charming, quick-on-his-feet guy."

Holmes has started to become known for his popular podcast You Make It Weird. He also starred in a series of Batman parodies on the CollegeHumor website and provides the voice of the baby in E*Trade commercials.

Holmes says his humor seems to complement O'Brien's, and the similarities don't end there. Both funnymen hail from Massachusetts, and both are extraordinarily tall (Holmes, is 6'6"; O'Brien is 6'4".) That makes TBS' lineup easily the tallest in late night. 

The still-untitled show, set to air four nights a week during a four-week trial this fall, will feature celebrity guests but focus more heavily on sketch comedy and taped pieces. Holmes says he's still getting used to working with O'Brien, his comedy idol: "It's like if I were a kid meeting Cap'n Crunch or something."

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